Evangelical Information Center Churches - Sects - Religions
The Evangelical Information Center for Churches - Sects - Religions is one of the oldest and most comprehensive ecclesiastical organizations in German-speaking Switzerland about issues relating to new religious movements .
According to its own account, the central concern of the information center is religious consumer protection through information.
It was founded in the 1960s under the name "Evangelical Orientation Center" by Oswald Eggenberger . Today it is directed by Georg Schmid , Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Zurich, and his son, the theologian Georg Otto Schmid. In 1969 Eggenberger published the handbook “The Churches, Special Groups and Religious Associations”, which presented the religious landscape in Switzerland in detail. In the next 25 years Eggenberger published five more heavily revised and expanded editions. The seventh edition from 2002 was completely revised by a team under the direction of Georg Schmid and Georg Otto Schmid and reissued under the title "Churches - Sects - Religions".
The information center is run by the Evangelical Reformed Church of the Canton of Zurich and a few other German-speaking cantonal churches.
In addition, the information center publishes a quarterly information letter in which the latest developments and newly emerged groups are to be described.
The Evangelical Information Center also maintains the website “relinfo.ch”, which offers relatively comprehensive information on many religious communities, especially new religious movements . The contributions look at the respective communities critically and from the perspective of the Evangelical Reformed Church.
literature
- Georg Schmid (Hrsg.): Churches, sects, religions: religious communities, ideological groups and psycho-organizations in the German-speaking area, a manual . TVZ Theologischer Verlag, 7th, revised. and additional edition, Zurich 2003. ISBN 3-290-17215-5